This invention relates to a lens driving mechanism, a lens unit and an image pickup apparatus.
A lens unit wherein an image pickup optical system including a movable lens or the like and a lens driving mechanism for moving the movable lens in a predetermined direction are disposed in a lens barrel is incorporated not only in video cameras and still cameras but also in various image pickup apparatus of portable telephone sets and like devices. The movable lens cooperates with a lens holder which holds the movable lens thereon to form a movable block. The movable block is moved by the lens driving mechanism in a direction of an optical axis to perform focusing or zooming and also in a direction perpendicular to the optical axis to perform correction against a blur.
One of such lens driving mechanisms as described above uses a linear actuator formed from a driving coil, a driving magnet and so forth as disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent No. 3387173 (hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 1).